Music of Minnesota - Venues

Venues

Large venues for popular national music acts in Minnesota include the Target Center, Xcel Energy Center, and, more rarely due to poor acoustics, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Northrop Auditorium on the University of Minnesota's main campus has a capacity of about 5,000, and hosts a variety of music and arts events. Among these is concert series known as "Lend a Hand, Hear the Band", to which University students who complete 10 hours of community service are given tickets.

Classical music is heard at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, a 2,500-seat auditorium "justly renowned for its rich, lively acoustics", and St. Paul's 1,900-seat Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. Older traditional theaters seating about 2,000 include The Historic Orpheum Theatre, Pantages Theatre, and State Theatre, all in Minneapolis, and the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in Saint Paul. The Guthrie Theater holds over 1,000, and The Cedar Cultural Center can seat 465.

First Avenue, an influential music club in downtown Minneapolis, was opened as "The Depot" in 1970, and went through several name changes until it became "First Avenue & 7th Street Entry" in 1980. Its history of launching renowned acts such as Prince solidifies its importance in the current local scene and in Minnesota music history.

Youth music venues, many of which operate as youth centers by day, include THE GARAGE in Burnsville, Depot Coffee House in Hopkins, Enigma Teen Center in Shakopee, and on some occasions the Apple Valley Teen Center. Also, a few venues catering to crowds of all ages, now gone, are remembered as significant to the Twin Cities music scene. These include the Foxfire Coffee Lounge in downtown Minneapolis and the Fireball Espresso Café in Falcon Heights, St. Paul. Other defunct but historically important venues include the Pence Opera House, the Coffeehouse Extempore or Extemporé, and the Uptown Bar. The Prom Ballroom and Treasure Inn in Saint Paul and the Marigold Ballroom and the Flame Cafe in Minneapolis featured prominent jazz, rock, country and other bands in the mid-20th century. Outside of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, important venues included Big Reggie's Danceland in Excelsior, the NorShor Theater in Duluth, Chisholm's Ironworld U.S.A. (renamed the Minnesota Discovery Center), and Ralph's Corner, for many years one of the premier indie rock clubs in the Fargo-Moorhead area.